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A large-scale study on the replicability of claims from social and behavioural science journals reports that about half of the results replicate in the same patterns as the original study.

The APOE-ε4 allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, but it is not deterministic. Here, the authors show that common genetic variation changes how APOE-ε4 influences cognition.

Emissions from croplands are an important source of GHG emissions that can be shaped by management. This study presents maps of emissions globally for different crops, showing that drained peatlands, rice paddies and fertilizer were the main drivers, and highlights differences in emission intensity.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Using multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine-mapping, 298 loci and 36 credible genes are identified in the aetiology of bipolar disorder.

There’s an emerging body of evidence to show how biological sex impacts cancer incidence, treatment and underlying biology. Here, using a large pan-cancer dataset, the authors further highlight how sex differences shape the cancer genome.

Nathaniel Comfort assesses Craig Venter's vision of nature-as-machine.

A high-resolution, global atlas of mortality of children under five years of age between 2000 and 2017 highlights subnational geographical inequalities in the distribution, rates and absolute counts of child deaths by age.

This study used fine-mapping to analyze genetic regions associated with bipolar disorder, identifying specific risk genes and providing new insights into the biology of the condition that may guide future research and treatment approaches.

Marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) is a common subtype of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Here the authors carry out a two-stage genome-wide association study in over 8,000 Europeans and identify two new MZL risk loci at chromosome 6p, implicating the major histocompatibility complex in the disease for the first time.

Genome-wide association analyses of 41,917 bipolar disorder cases and 371,549 controls of European ancestry provide new insights into the etiology of this disorder and identify novel therapeutic leads and potential opportunities for drug repurposing.

Sera from vaccinated individuals and some monoclonal antibodies show a modest reduction in neutralizing activity against the B.1.1.7 variant of SARS-CoV-2; but the E484K substitution leads to a considerable loss of neutralizing activity.

Chronic infection with SARS-CoV-2 leads to the emergence of viral variants that show reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies in an immunosuppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma.

A study of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between September 2020 and June 2021 finds that interventions capable of containing previous variants were insufficient to stop the more transmissible Alpha and Delta variants.

Genetic and testing data from England show that the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7 has a transmission advantage over other lineages.

Whole-genome sequencing of 962 clear cell renal cell carcinomas from 11 countries shows geographic variations in somatic mutation profiles, including a mutational signature of unknown cause in 70% of cases from Japan.

The bacterial plant pathogen genus Xanthomonas uses two distinct secretion systems for antibacterial competition. Here the authors show that some Xanthomonas lineages have switched from the ancestral X-T4SS state to T6SS-i4 despite the functional similarity of the systems, with X-T4SS gene clusters subject to degradation and loss and T6SS-i4-encoding sequences inserted through independent gains.

Mabe et al. find that GD2 levels correlate with lineage plasticity in neuroblastoma and identify ST8SIA1 as the key enzyme in GD2 synthesis. EZH2 inhibition in mesenchymal neuroblastoma cells elevates ST8SIA1, synergizing with anti-GD2 antibodies.

The Omicron variant evades vaccine-induced neutralization but also fails to form syncytia, shows reduced replication in human lung cells and preferentially uses a TMPRSS2-independent cell entry pathway, which may contribute to enhanced replication in cells of the upper airway. Altered fusion and cell entry characteristics are linked to distinct regions of the Omicron spike protein.

In this study, Aggarwal and colleagues perform prospective sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 isolates derived from asymptomatic student screening and symptomatic testing of students and staff at the University of Cambridge. They identify important factors that contributed to within university transmission and onward spread into the wider community.

On the basis of data from >329,000 migratory birds, this study presents multispecies migratory connectivity as a parameter representing exposure to global change and shows that connections between breeding regions in Canada and non-breeding regions in South America are at greatest risk from global change.

Circulating proteins are a potential source of cancer biomarkers. Here, the authors assessed 2,074 circulating proteins and used Mendelian randomisation to compare with the risk of 9 common cancer types across multiple GWAS cohorts and identified key considerations with respect to the potential for adverse effects of altering cancer-risk proteins that inform their utility in cancer prevention.

Caspase-7 cleaves and activates acid sphingomyelinase (ASM), which promotes the repair of gasdermin pores and thereby delays pore-driven lysis to allow other processes such as extrusion or apoptosis to occur before cell death.

Post-international travel quarantine has been widely implemented to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but the impacts of such policies are unclear. Here, the authors used linked genomic and contact tracing data to assess the impacts of a 14-day quarantine on return to England in summer 2020.

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias identifies new loci and enables generation of a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Here the authors report an optimized self-replicating RNA (srRNA) vaccine approach that generates protective immunity at much lower doses than mRNA vaccines in mice. In a Phase 1 study using rabies glycoprotein as antigen, they show robust immune responses at doses as low as 0.1 µg, with a favorable safety profile.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is a highly inheritable cancer. Here the authors conduct a metaanalysis of four genome-wide association studies and identify three novel loci located near EOMES, SERPINB6 and LPPassociated with risk of this disease.

Allele-preferential transcription factor binding can influence pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma risk loci function. Here, the authors show allele-specific JunB and JunD binding at chr1p36.33 and propose a role for KLHL17 in protein homeostasis by mitigating inflammation.

The authors report data from the emergency department AURORA study to characterize resilience in more detail than the absence of psychopathology after trauma.

Susan Slager and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). They identify nine loci newly associated with CLL.

Krebs and colleagues identify multiple mAbs that recognize either the RBD or the NTD of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that have potent cross-neutralizing activities against variants of concern. Combinatorial mAb cocktails have complementary effects on viral neutralization and Fc effector functions and can protect against SARS-CoV-2 escape mutants.

Christine Skibola and colleagues identify variants at 6p21.32 associated with risk of follicular lymphoma, providing further support that variation in the MHC region influences risk of this disease. They also replicate previously reported risk variants for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM)/lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (LPL) is a non-Hodgkin-type B cell lymphoma. Here, the authors identify two risk loci for WM/LPL in a two-stage GWAS involving a family-oversampling approach and provide evidence for a functional role of the non-coding SNP rs116446171.

An international consortium reports the genomic sequence for ten Drosophila species, and compares them to two other previously published Drosophila species. These data are invaluable for drawing evolutionary conclusions across an entire phylogeny of species at once.

Spangler et al. used a substrate inhibitor covalent conjugate strategy to solve cryo-EM structures of nucleosomes in complex with the lysine demethylase KDM2, which demonstrates that KDM2A, but not its closely related paralog, KDM2B, anchors to the acidic patch to direct histone H3K36-specific demethylation.

SLEAP is a versatile deep learning-based multi-animal pose-tracking tool designed to work on videos of diverse animals, including during social behavior.

Genome-wide analyses identify common variants associated with 11 distinct neuropathology endophenotypes, providing insights into the mechanisms underlying the genetic risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

A design pipeline is presented whereby binding proteins can be designed de novo without the need for prior information on binding hotspots or fragments from structures of complexes with binding partners.

In this study the authors identify a possible link between the gene FAM222A and brain atrophy. The protein it encodes is found to accumulate in plaques seen in Alzheimer’s disease, and functional analysis suggests it interacts with amyloid-beta.

Fine-scale estimates of the prevalence of HIV in adults across sub-Saharan Africa reveal substantial within-country variation and local differences in both the direction and rate of change in the prevalence of HIV between 2000 and 2017.

Genetic variants associated with susceptibility to pancreatic cancer have been identified using genome wide association studies (GWAS). Here, the authors combine data from over 9000 patients and perform a meta-analysis to identify five novel loci linked to pancreatic cancer.

The inherited basis of body fat distribution is not fully understood. Here, the authors use genetic data and MRI-derived measures of local adiposity to highlight fat depot-specific genetic architecture with implications for cardiometabolic health.

KMT2A rearranged infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients have a poor prognosis. Here, the authors use high throughput drug screening on primary infant specimens to identify a clinically active chemotherapy combination.

Geospatial estimates of child growth failure in Africa provide a baseline for measuring progress and a precision public health platform to target interventions to those populations with the greatest need.